“Renewable energies’ increased contribution is gratifying. Unfortunately, the necessary grid expansion is not keeping pace with the growth in regenerative plants because of all the time lost to political debates. Grid expansion and the expansion of renewables have to be far more closely linked and better meshed to reduce the enormous costs of stabilizing networks. On top of that, we will not be able to do without conventional power plants as a backup for secure power supply,” said Stefan Kapferer, Chairman of BDEW’s General Executive Management Board, today in Berlin.

Prof. Frithjof Staiss, Managing Director of the ZSW, adds, “The good news from the electricity sector notwithstanding, the important thing is to continue developing the power supply as a whole in a reliable, affordable and environmentally sound way, and advancing the Energiewende [Germany’s exit from nuclear power and fossil fuels and transition to renewables] on the political and social fronts. And let’s not lose sight of energy efficiency as a core component. The math is simple enough: Energy that is not needed does not need to be generated.”

World clean energy investment totalled $333.5 billion last year, up 3% from 2016 and the second highest annual figure ever, taking cumulative investment since 2010 to $2.5 trillion. An extraordinary boom in photovoltaic installations made 2017 a record year for China’s investment in clean energy. This outpaced changes elsewhere, including jumps in investment in Australia and Mexico, and declines in Japan, the U.K. and Germany. The figures up 3% from a revised $324.6 billion in 2016, and only 7% short of the record figure of $360.3 billion, in 2015.

According to the latest issue of the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) “Electric Power Monthly” report, U.S. electrical generation from renewable energy sources (i.e., biomass, geothermal, hydropower, solar – inc. distributed solar, wind) rose by 14.69% during the first three-quarters of 2017 compared to the same period in 2016. Simultaneously, electrical generation by fossil fuels and nuclear power combined declined by 5.41%. Nuclear power and coal both dropped by 1.5%, natural gas (including “other” gas) was down by 10.7%, and oil (i.e., petroleum liquids and petroleum coke) plunged by 17.1%.

European lawmakers have called for a renewable energy target of 35% for 2030 – rather than the 27% which the European Commission proposed in 2016. The MEPs have now backed measures substantially raising the European Union’s clean-energy ambitions. By 2030, more than one-third of energy consumed in the EU should be from renewable sources such as wind and solar power. The measures are intended to help cut carbon dioxide emissions. The EU is the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases after China and the United States, releasing about 10% of global emissions.

India is accelerating development of renewable energy projects to provide cheap, reliable and clean power to its 1.3 billion people. The country’s per-capita on-grid electricity consumption has increased significantly over the four years; due to increased industrial activity, higher uptake of electrical appliances by residential electricity users and the addition of new consumers to the grid. During this period, the cost of electricity from rooftop PV has halved, due to fierce competition in the market and a drop in equipment prices. In contrast, average retail electricity rates have increased by 22% in the same period. This has made rooftop PV cheaper than commercial and industrial grid tariffs in all major states in India.

Vestas has received a firm and unconditional order for 190 MW of 4 MW platform turbines in the U.S. taking the global order intake for the company in 2017 to 10.6 GW, surpassing 2016’s record order intake of 10.5 GW. The surge of orders at the end of the year has resulted in the company revising its guidance for free cashflow upwards. It now expects the free cashflow for 2017 to be €1.15bn-€1.25bn, as compared with the previous guidance of €450m-€900m. Markets have reacted favourably with the company share price experiencing an increase of 5%.